Social selling is a lead generation strategy designed to help salespeople directly interact with prospects through social platforms. The concept of social selling challenges the typical transaction experience between customers and companies, leading to more natural relationships with leads.

If you have a business page on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, you may already be engaged in the basics of social selling without realizing it. With this strategy, companies listen to the conversations of their target audience, find opportunities to connect and build relationships.

The benefits of social selling

To generate revenue for your business, you’ll need to find your audience and connect with them on a deeper level.

In the past, finding an audience and discovering opportunities for connections was difficult and unrefined. Now, social media makes it easy to specifically target the kind of people most likely to buy from you. According to studies:

  • 78.6% of people using social media for sales outperform those who don’t.
  • 98% of reps with more than 5,000 LinkedIn contacts reach their sales quotas, compared to 52% for those with fewer than 250 connections
  • Social channels influence approximately 92% of B2B buying decisions

How to find social selling opportunities

Today, when people have a need to fulfill, they both look for solutions on search engines and discuss their needs online in social platforms. By listening to what your people are talking about on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with a tool like Sprout Social, you determine what kind of problems you need to solve.

The more you learn about your customers and their interests, demands and requirements, the more you create customized sales pitches specifically designed to improve your chances of a sale. Social selling tactics also help you to discover:

  • Who you need to target in an organization
  • What your competitors are doing
  • The trends happening in your industry
  • Opportunities for collaboration with other brands

With social guidance, salespeople can demonstrate how a company’s products and services specifically solve the issues their customers are facing. This makes earning a sale and a better relationship with clients much easier.
Social selling best practices

Social media platforms are giving businesses an opportunity to engage with customers on a deeper level and therefore enhance their chances of a sale. To earn and convert valuable leads through social media, make sure you:

  • Create an attractive profile with an insightful bio and compelling picture.
  • Use content strategically to demonstrate your value in line with your customer’s needs.
  • Monitor your customer conversations with tools like Sprout Social.
  • Use tools to collect contact information where possible and build email lists.
  • Join and create groups to expand your social community
  • Track the results of your campaigns through analytical tools.

Remember that social selling is about building relationships with your audience by learning what they need from you. As such, the conversation you have with prospects needs to deliver value. Focus on solving customer problems, rather than just advertising products and services.